*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-1:11PM, December 8, 2034*****
Madigan pulled Nene into a side-room. "You're a dead woman in
fifteen minutes if you can't explain how you know what you know in
fifteen seconds."
"Word travels fast?" Nene smiled.
Madigan pulled out a gun. "Don't push me."
"October Network." Sylia said. Nene didn't say anything. "October
Network told you." she whispered again.
"October Network." Nene whispered. She had to struggle to surpress a
smile. She was going to beat Madigan at her own game.
"How do you know about October Network?"
"Kaufman."
"Kaufman."
"Kaufman?" Madigan was surprised. "He's been in the hospital since
his stroke last year."
"Shame about the sexaroid." Nene said, this time without any help
from Sylia.
Madigan seemed even more surprised. "How much do you know?"
"That's what you get for sending updated files to a man in a
hospital bed. My friend got ahold of some of the files."
"What's your friend's name?"
"Why, so you can kill him too?"
"Good answer, Nene." Linna smiled, looking out the vent into the
room. It had been thrown into a small pandemonium since Nene's removal.
Mackie was the only one not saying anything. Obviously listening in on
the conversation.
"If you give us your friend's name, we will allow you to finish your
work here."
"And then you'll kill me?"
"Of course. Can't have people with that sort of information running
around, can we?"
"Then why would I tell you?"
"Because if you do, at least you'll be remembered as one of the
thirty-eight that made phasing possible."
"No loss to me," Nene thought, "I'll be gone once I'm done here
anyway." She smiled. "Jeff Averys. 20706 Kingsford Lane, Chicago,
Illinois." Sending them looking through Chicago might keep them busy for
a while, even if there was a tower right there.
Madigan's eyes narrowed. "You better not be lying to me." She led
her back outside, where the rustle of the room stopped as soon as they
entered. "Continue your work." Was all Madigan said, "The isolinear chips
will contain the information."
****Genom's United States Tower-1:27AM, December 9, 2034****
Jason Mier walked slowly to the window of his office. He was third
in command at the tower, and the nightwatch officer. Things at the tower
never shut down. It just happened that less things went on during the
night. Of course, the night was also the time they would make attempts at
any illegal things that might need to be done. There were no AD Police in
the United States, and the N police didn't bother them the way the
Megatokyo tower was bothered.
"Sir," a messager ran up, "Direct order from Quincy. This man is to
be terminated." He handed him a small faxed letter. Mier read it through.
"Give the order." he said. Nothing special, things like this happened all
the time. However, he was surprised to see Quincy actually take an
interest in this man. In anyone...
*****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-7:05PM, December 9, 2034*****
"...I give you, your phaser." Madigan pulled a small rope. The
machine was huge, awesome. A single pad stood in the middle.
The scientists looked on to see what they had created. Quincy
himself was there to witness the event.
"I guess I should test it." The chairman gave in, knowing he had to
do it.
"No." Madigan stopped him. "Ms. Yuri will test it for us." She
smiled.
Nene stepped up. "I'd be glad to." She turned and smiled at
everyone. She turned back to Madigan. "Trying to get rid of me a little
early, aren't you?"
"Tell you what, if you live through this I'll give you an extra day
to live." Madigan smiled.
"And if I don't?" Nene joked.
"I'll send flowers to the funeral." Madigan said, serious.
Nene stepped up. The chairperson began throwing levers and pushing
buttons. Things Nene should know about, but she hadn't been paying
attention.
"Scanning...Shunting pattern to the buffer...Phase discriminator
online....Phase in five...four...three...two...one."
A bright flash of light. Nene was gone. "There's a twenty-second
pause for the purpose of the test." he explained, as if the scientists
didn't know.
Twenty seconds passed. Nene didn't reappear. Another ten. "Nene."
Mackie whispered. Another ten, and the room suddenly went into an uproar.
Everyone was clambering everywhere. Trying to find out what was wrong.
The Knight Sabers sat at their positions. Nobody said anything.
****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-11:56AM, December 10, 2034****
"We thank you for seeing us on such short time, Ms. Stingray."
Madigan smiled as Sylia stepped out of the limo.
"Oh, you know me. Anything for science." Sylia smiled as she
adjusted her sunglasses.
****Genom's United States Tower-3:04PM, December 10, 2034****
Keith Adams stood in his room at the top of the tower. His office
overlooked the entire city of Chicago. "Sir." Mr. Miers came in. "We
killed the person residing at the address Mr. Quincy gave us, but he was
not a one 'Jeff Averys'."
"Notify the Tokyo tower."
****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-6:20PM, December 10, 2034****
"Sir." Madigan bowed in Quincy's presence. "Jeff Averys does not
reside at the address given. In fact, the US tower finds nobody named
Jeff Averys in the entire city of Chicago."
"Probably false information. It does not matter, the interloper has
been taken care of."
"What if they find a way to bring her back?"
"Then kill them all. I'm certain the papers will love it when we
report the Knight Sabers killed our scientists."
"Always killing two birds with one stone, sir." Madigan smiled,
bowed, and left the room.
****Genom's Megatokyo Tower-1:02AM, December 11, 2034****
"So, you really can fix it?" Mackie whispered to Sylia as they
slipped through the halls.
"I'm not sure that it's broken."
"How can you say that? Nene's not here."
"Nene phased. I'm just not sure the targeting area was set
correctly."
"So what are you saying?"
"She's alive. Somewhere. I just don't know where. In any case, even
if I do fix the targeting area, it won't bring Nene back. I'm going to
try and locate her."
They crouched on the edge of the hallway as two 34-C boomers stood
still in the darkness. The tower was on power-down night mode. It would
be easy to knock out these two since internal sensors were offline.
"Now." she whispered.
Linna and Priss crashed through the wall from the air vent. They
both had their hardsuits on. In the vent, the other two hardsuits lay. It
had been hard work fitting them all the way up there. Mackie and Sylia
suited up as Linna and Priss made short work of the surprised boomers.
"Hurry. We don't have much time." Sylia turned on the phaser, and
started keying in the same coordinates the scientist put in before.
"Love the new clothes." Priss laughed at Mackie's black-and-gold
hardsuit.
"Funny." Mackie joked. He turned on the scanner. Linna jumped up on
the pad. "Nene can't even stand up without getting herself in trouble."
Somehow her jokes didn't seem as funny now.
"Just a few more..." Sylia whispered.
"Halt!" A 34-C appeared in the doorway.
"Sylia look-" Priss didn't bother to complete her sentence as she
opened fire on the boomer.
Just as Priss' shot hit, the boomer fired. Sylia instinctively dove
out of the way. The blast from Priss' weapon had knocked the boomer off
target, and it's blast hit the control console.
The phasing kicked in.
"Oh shit!" Priss screamed as she started to fade.